You don’t need to be a recruitment guru to know that your start-up will need an active online presence if it’s to succeed.

While your focus in getting off the ground will initially be dedicated to recruiting, the bigger you grow the more of a priority your presence becomes.

What’s your brand?

It’s what sets new agencies apart from the competition, and it embodies all you are and aspire to be. Winning candidates and clients will start a long time before you engage with them – everything they’ve heard or seen about you is tied up in your branding.

The bigger your brand the more clients will gravitate towards you. So start building a uniform message and appearance from the off.

When your constructing your brand you need to consider what your values are, what your mission statement is and what your aspirations are.

What do you want from your website?

You can’t afford to neglect your agency’s virtual shop window, but will need to ask what you want from your site before you pour money into it.

Are you going to reach your target demographic if they are predominantly working in construction, and are they likely to then apply online?

On the other hand, if you operate in the tech or IT industries, you need to ensure you come across as slick and cutting edge to inspire professionalism and attract the right interest.

What’s the overall objective of a website?

Are you looking to market jobs for online applications or simply showcase your agency?

Do you have a budget?

What functionality are you looking for, does it need to be mobile responsible?

What technology are you investing in?

Managing a website is easier than ever before thanks to the increasing popularity of content management systems such as WordPress. Once you have a web host, installing wordpress is simple enough and adding themes is even easier.

If you’re looking to add jobs to your website there are a number of wordpress plugins available, such as JobRoller 2, WP Job Board 3 and WP Jobboard Pro Hosting.

In-house or in the Cloud?

The answer to this question is very short. Choose cloud. The cost savings, ease of use, ability to scale and advantage of storing all of your documents securely makes cloud the ideal choice for modern businesses.

For day-to-day usage, email, documents and spreadsheets, there’s two obvious choices – Google and Microsoft.

Google Microsoft
  • Business email addresses (name@yourcompany.com)
  • Video and voice calls
  • Integrated online calendars
  • 30 GB of online storage for file syncing and sharing
  • Online text documents, spreadsheets and slides
  • Easy-to-create project sites
  • Security and admin controls
  • 24/7 phone and email support
  • Enjoy a full, installed Office experience across PCs, Macs, Windows tablets and iPad® and Android™ tablets, and most mobile devices.
  • Each user can install Office on 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets (Windows, iPad, and Android), and 5 phones
  • OneDrive for Business provides 1 TB of storage for each user for virtually anywhere access to their documents
  • Instant messaging and Skype connectivity
  • Design customized marketing materials that fit your brand and customers.
Source: Google Source: Microsoft